Quotes from Susan Cain

As a parent, if give yourself what you need, your children will watch you doing that and will give themselves what they need.

Many introverts feel there's something wrong with them, and try to pass as extroverts. But whenever you try to pass as something you're not, you lose a part of yourself along the way. You especially lose a sense of how to spend your time.

I actually find extroversion to be a really appealing personality style.

I'm insatiably curious about human nature.

I'm insatiably curious about human nature. I feel very lucky that as a writer I get to learn so much about it just to do my job right.

Even when the attention focused on me is positive, I am uncomfortable being looked at by a lot of people - it's just not my natural state of being.

We have a two-tier class system when it comes to personality style. To devalue introversion is a waste of talent, energy and happiness.

The bias against introversion leads to a colossal waste of talent, energy, and happiness.

Our culture is biased against quiet and reserved people, but introverts are responsible for some of humanity's greatest achievements.

We've known about the transcendent power of solitude for centuries; it's only recently that we've forgotten it.

Jealousy is an ugly emotion, but it tells the truth. You mostly envy those who have what you desire.

It's never a good idea to organize society in a way that depletes the energy of half the population. We discovered this with women decades ago, and now it's time to realize it with introverts.

I prefer listening to talking, reading to socializing, and cozy chats to group settings.

One honest relationship can be more productive than fistfuls of business cards.

One thing I'm hearing a lot is from teachers who have felt that there's something wrong with the extreme group learning, but felt like they couldn't say that out loud. And apparently the discussion is now opening up. I think change is going to be a long time coming.

In a way, education by its nature favours the extrovert because you are taking kids and putting them into a big classroom, which is automatically going to be a high-stimulation environment. Probably the best way of teaching in general is one on one, but that's not something everyone can afford.

Opposites attract, and I think temperament is so fundamental that you end up craving someone of the opposite temperament to complete you.

It's never a good idea to organize society in a way that depletes the energy of half the population.

A widely held, but rarely articulated, belief in our society is that the ideal self is bold, alpha, gregarious. Introversion is viewed somewhere between disappointment and pathology.

I've never given a speech without being terrified first.

The secret to life is to put yourself in the right lighting.

Many people believe that introversion is about being antisocial, and that's really a misperception. Because actually it's just that introverts are differently social. So they would prefer to have a glass of wine with a close friend as opposed to going to a loud party full of strangers.

All personality traits have their good side and their bad side. But for a long time, we've seen introversion only through its negative side and extroversion mostly through its positive side.

Men are more likely to be introverted than women are, but it's really very slight. But the real difference I think is in how it plays out, how it relates to cultural stereotypes.